Hildegard von Bingen’s Concept of Truth
Compared to
St. Augustine’s Exposition of Truth
CONTENT
Theories of Truth
Motivation - Historical Overview
Hildegard on Truth
Augustine on Truth
Comparison Table
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Hermetic Literature
O son, Truth is the most perfect virtue, and the highest good itself, not troubled by matter, not encompassed by a body, naked, clear, unchangeable, venerable, unalterable good.
What therefore doth thou affirm to be the first Truth, O father?
The One and Only, that is not of matter, that is not in a body, that is
without color, without figure or shape, Immutable, Unalterable, which always is.
Hermes Trismegistus; Bk XV
Lactantius
Men of great talent […] applied to the pursuit of investigating the truth
which they so greatly desired to know that they even preferred it to all things. But they did not obtain the object of their wish, because the truth,
that is the secret of the Most High God, who created all things, cannot be attained by our own ability and perceptions. Otherwise there would be no difference between God and man.
Lactantius; (c240-320); The Divine Institutes; ANF7; p9.
Hildegard of Bingen on Truth
1- The Nature of God
The all-powerful and unutterable God, who was before ages but did not have a beginning or will ever have an end […] 1-v6-1
[…] knowing the true God[…] who is above all
things. 1-v6-9
No one is able to reach up to God’s divinity by stretching his or her own senses, because God’s divinity is above all things. 3-v1-1
[…] God is true and just […] God does not change
in any way. 3-v1-12
No one is without a beginning and an end, except God. 3-v1-16
2- The Importance of the Knowledge of God
[Fallen angels] embraced the dullness of ignorance by which they were not able to know God. 1-v2-1
[…] pagans who did not know God and were destroyed by God. 1-v5-8
This virtue is the knowledge of God. 3-v4-15
They ought to desire me and to know the true God. 3-v5-7
It destroys them in their ignorance when they do not want to know God. 3-v5-10
3- […] the human race proudly abandoning truth through Adam. 2-v6-3
They did not know the light of truth and faith, and they had chosen Satan instead of God. 2-v7
This means that while the Word foretold and
pronounced the light of truth, the apostles were being made announcers of the true light. 3-v4-11
And Truth spoke.
3-v6-3
Truth exists as the tower and defense of the
other virtues[…]
Truth was invisible and had existed in the heart
of God before being visible in the true flesh of the Word of God. 3-v6-31
It is the Spirit who
testifies that Christ is the Truth.
[…] Christ is the perfect truth[…] 3-v7-8
Concessions
1- We cannot avoid using the word Truth even
though we have not yet defined it. Therefore we will assume that the word
Truth means “agreement of thought with reality.”
2- We also begin by
assuming that all propositions must have one of two Truth values, either
True or False.
3- St. Augustine was a Neo-Platonist and he
believed that numbers and geometric shapes existed in God’s mind, and were
available for us to discover and use. He depended upon these assumptions to
develop his nature of truth. It is evident to many now that numbers and
geometric shapes are abstract concepts that are, in the words of Billy
Goetz, past president of MIT, “non-existent impossibilities.” Thus I have
taken the liberty to edit Augustine’s thesis by removing any references to
mathematics.
There are six points in Augustine’s exposition of
Truth:-
Augustine on Truth
1. Truth Exists
It is self-defeating to deny the
existence of truth. If someone claims that “Truth does not exist,” then we
can counter by asking if the claim is True or False. if the claim is false,
then truth exists, and if the claim is true, then truth exists.
2- Truth is Unchangeable
It is impossible for Truth to change. What is true
today, always has been and always will be true. All true propositions are
immutable truths. Pragmatic views of truth that imply that what is true
today may be false tomorrow are untenable. If truth changes, then pragmatism
will be untrue tomorrow, if indeed it could ever be true.
3- Truth is Eternal
By extension of its unchangeable nature, truth must be eternal. Even if
every created thing ceases to exist, Truth will continue to exist. But suppose someone asks,
“What if truth itself should someday perish?” The
truth that “Truth has perished” would still exist eternally. Any denial of
the eternity of truth turns out to be an affirmation of its eternity.
4- Truth is Spiritual
The existence of truth presupposes
the existence of minds. Without a mind, truth could not exist. The object of
knowledge is a meaningful thought which resides in one or more minds.
a.
Truth is
not a function of Matter.
The existence of truth is incompatible with any
materialistic view of man. Materialists believe that all thinking and
reasoning is merely the result of the random motion of particles in the
brain. But one set of relative physical motions is not truer than another
set. Therefore, if there is no min, there can be no truth; and if there is
no truth, materialism cannot be true.
Truth cannot be a function of the position of
material objects because if a thought was the result of some physical motion
in the brain, no two persons could have the same thought. A physical motions
a fleeting event different from every other motion. Two persons could not
have the same random motion, nor could one person have the same random
motion twice.
b.
Truth is not a function of Time.
If thoughts were the result of physical motions in
the brain, memory and communication would be impossible. We are able to
recall the past because we have minds and not because of the motion of
particles in our brains. Thus, if one is able to think the same thought
twice, truth must be independent of time.
c.
Truth is
not a function of Space.
Truth is independent of Space as well. Not only
does truth defy time and matter; it defies space as well. For communication
to be possible between two or more people, the identical truth must be in
two or more minds at the same time. If, in opposition, anyone wished to deny
that an immaterial idea can exist in two different minds at the same time,
his denial must be conceived to exist in his own mind only; and since it has
not registered in any other mind, it does not occur to us to refute it!
5- Truth is Superior to the human mind
By its
very nature, truth cannot be subjective and individualistic. Truth is
immutable, but the human mind is changeable. Even though beliefs vary from
one person to another, truth itself cannot change. Moreover, the human mind
does not stand in judgment of truth; but rather, truth judges our reason.
While we sometimes judge other human minds (as when we say, for example,
that someone’s mind is not as keen as it should be), we do not judge truth.
If truth and the human mind were equal, truth could not be eternal and
immutable since the human mind is finite, mutable, and subject to error.
Therefore, truth must transcend human reason; truth must be superior to any
individual human mind as well as to the sum total of human minds. From this
it follows that there must be a mind higher than the human mind in which
truth resides.
6- Truth
is God
We have seen that Truth exists, is unchangeable, eternal, spiritual, and is
superior to the human mind. But only God possesses these attributes. If we
substitute the word “God” for the word “Truth” in the list of its attributes,
we see that:
God Exists
God is Unchangeable
God is Eternal
God
is Spiritual
God is not a function of Space, Time or Matter
God is
Superior to the human mind.
These attributes apply equally to truth and
God, and only to Truth and God.
Truth and God are identical.
Hildegard on Truth/God
God Exists
God is Unchangeable
God is Eternal
God is Spirit
God is the highest good
Truth is Christ/God
|
Augustine on Truth/God
Truth Exists
Truth is Unchangeable
Truth is Eternal
Truth is Spiritual
Truth is the highest good
Truth is God
|
REFERENCES
Andressa Vidiga
>
The Phrygian Mode in Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum as Representation of the Feminine in God; Sonus; 2015
Bruce W. Hozeski
>
Faith: Hildegard von Bingen and Some of the Modern Theologians; Mystics Quarterly; 1991
Carmen Acevedo Butcher
>
St Hildegard of Bingen; 2013
Gerald Vision
>
Veritas; MIT Press; 2004
Heinrich Schipperges
> Hildegard of Bingen; 1995
Hermes Trismegistus
>
Hermetic Literature, Book XV
Jeannette D. Jones >
A Theological Interpretation of
‘Viriditas’ in Hildegard of Bingen and Gregory the Great: Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology at Boston University, 2011
Lactantius > The Divine Institutes; ANF7
Matthew Fox
> Hildegard von Bingen’s Mystical Visions; 1986
Matthew Fox
> Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen; 1985
Monica Furlong
> Visions and Longings; 1996
Paula J. Hamm
> Hildegard von Bingen: A Psychoanalytic/Spiritual Perspective of the Creative Mind; APA; 2005
Philip Rice
> In ‘Spirit’ and in Truth; 2010
Pozzi Escot
> Hildegard Von Bingen: Universal Proportion; Mystics Quarterly; 1993
Richard K. Emmerson
> The Representation of Antichrist in Hildegard of Bingen’s Scivias: Image, Word, Commentary, and Visionary Experience; Gesta; 2002
Robert Grosseteste
> On Truth; Richard McKeon, ed.; 1929
Ronald H. Nash
> Faith and Reason; Academie Books; 1988
St. Anselm
> Concerning Truth; Jasper Hopkins, ed.; 1967
St. Aquinas
> Truth; Robert W. Mulligan; tr. 1954
St. Augustine
> On the Free Choice of the Will; Thomas Williams; tr. 1993
St. Bonaventure
> Disputed Questions on the Knowledge of Christ; Zachary Hayes, ed.; 1992
Acknowledgements
With deep gratitude to Dr. Pozzi Escot and the Congress for the opportunity to present this paper at the
51st International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
May 12-15, 2016
Published in Qualelibet; periodical of the International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies; vol XXXIV, n2; Autumn 2016, p2.
